With the advent of minaturized electronic components, the need for smaller, while at the same time less expensive, switches has become increasingly important. Minaturization of electrical and electronic circuits have substantially decreased the cost involved because of simplicification of the equipment involved. On the other hand, switches have become difficult to produce in minaturized form largely because of the intricacy of the dyes and tools required as well as the greater cost in either the skilled labor needed or in the complex automated machinery required.
Rotary switches have long been used to make and break an electrical connection in electrical circuits, the achievement of this electrical connection generally being dependent upon the mechanical interaction of the component part of the switch. In switches utilizing rotary movement, mechanical contact creating the electrical connection between two electrical terminals is often obtained by rolling members such as conductive balls, rollers or other curved members conducive to the rotation of this switch. Rolling contacts in a rotary type switch are used mainly because they respond to rotational movement with reduced, if not minimum, friction resulting in less wear of the component parts of the switch.
A desirable feature for rotary switches is to maintain the circuitry of the switch fixed in a set position once that position has been selected for the switch. In order to prevent inadvertent drifting of the switch out of this selected position, some prior art arrangements have employed detent mechanisms, contributing an added complexity to the switch construction. Generally, the function of these mechanisms is to develop a restraining force between interacting mechanical members, one of which is movable with respect to the other, such that the movable member is selectively locked in a fixed position. This stopping action is selective since the mechanism is arranged to allow the movable member to advance out of one position and into the next position when additional force is applied to overcome the original restraining force. Most prior art devices utilizing detent mechanisms couple these locking mechanisms to the contact means to thereby index the stopping action such that a fixed position coincides with a make or break electrical connection being made.
The interdependence of the contact means and the detent mechanism and, consequently, the need to use more parts has inherently resulted in switches being too large in size for many minaturized applications. While these switches may be mounted on printed circuit boards, the switches are frequently mounted to a panel with either soldered wire leads or fast-on wire tab connectors.